In the last decades, wireless communication systems have become ubiquitous. For example, cellular communication systems such as mobile communication systems (e.g. the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) or the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS)), broadband Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMAN) and wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) have become widespread as a means to provide efficient communication services to e.g. mobile communication units. However, the increased prevalence of wireless communication systems have resulted in a dramatically increased need for air interface resources, and the need for efficiently and flexibly utilising the available resource has become essential for the further development of wireless systems.
Accordingly, radio resource management is one of the most critical operations in a radio communication system and has become increasingly difficult due to the existence of an increasing number of diverse and interoperating communication systems. For example, intersystem handovers of communications between different systems have been introduced for multi system devices in order to provide an improved communication service and more efficient radio resource usage. However, as each of the communication systems typically apply individual resource management, it is difficult to achieve an efficient overall resource management for the combined operation of the individual communication systems.
In traditional radio communication systems, the resource management is typically performed by central network elements (such as a Radio Network Controller (RNC) for a UMTS cellular communication system) taking into account only the conditions and characteristics of the individual communication system. It is typically difficult and cumbersome to modify such centralized resource management to allow efficient resource management and resource sharing between different communication systems. Specifically, such modifications can result in inflexible, cumbersome, inefficient and/or impractical resource sharing.
For example, it is very difficult to introduce inter system resource management functionality which allows an efficient yet low complexity control of parameters such as load balancing, access right management, inter system handover, resource re-allocation etc. Also, in many communication systems, and especially heterogeneous communication systems, the management of geographic resource distribution, management and control is very complex and difficult to optimize.
Hence, an improved radio resource management approach would be advantageous, and in particular a radio resource management approach providing increased flexibility, facilitated implementation, reduced complexity, reduced cost, improved resource sharing, improved intersystem radio resource management in a heterogeneous system, improved user experience, improved and/or facilitated geographical radio resource management, increased capacity and/or improved performance would be advantageous.